It’s a musical year in Vancouver! The Vancouver Opera, Chutzpah!, the Talking Stick Festival, and the JUNO Awards are all coming up quick this season with new sounds to lift you into a songwriter’s bliss, take in long notes of melancholia, dance you into heart-pounding percussion, and carry you through the human experience in a way that only music can – and they’re doing it all live and in-person in venues across the city. The music continues all year with the Vancouver Jazz Festival and much more from spring to summer and into fall and winter.

Being on the edge of ocean and mountains in a temperate rainforest, Vancouver is blissfully set apart from much of Canada this time of year by having a lush, green, and mild winter. It’s chilly enough outside to want to indulge in all the warm foods, cocktails, and to hunker down for awhile at one of the events going on in the city, but not too cold to step out with little more than a warm sweater, cozy scarf and a jacket and get to them.

The season of rainfall, cozy layers and colourful gumboots has arrived in Vancouver and, when the natural light dims, Vancouver takes advantage of long nights by turning up the lights, volume, and entertainment indoors and out! Shake off the precipitation, leave your umbrella at the door, and step into sparkling theatre, passionate dance, roaring sport, and concerts that rattle the floorboards.

This year we are celebrating Canada, and the 150 years we threw a party for on July 1st are just a short part of a history that goes further back, past written history that we know, through oral traditions, visual art, and even further, carved in the landscapes of the Cascade and Rocky Mountains of BC.

To experience a piece of the rugged far-past and the glass-towered present of our western coast, we would like to send someone on an adventure that’ll take you through the Cascades and to the Rocky Mountains with West Trek Tours and then back to the city to unwind in luxury downtown at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver! While you’re exploring Vancouver, take a stroll through Gastown to galleries and restaurants on your way to choose a pair of limited edition sneakers adorned by local artists at Six Hundred Four so Vancouver walks with you wherever your travels take you next.

Anticipated to be a box office smash and one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters, War for the Planet of the Apes combines a morally complex storyline with eye-popping special effects and stunning scenery – and the latter will be familiar to those who have ever visited Canada’s West Coast. Vancouver and Vancouver Island serve as a stunning backdrop with much of the film showcasing the region’s lush parks, forests and waterfront. Keen to check out the home of the apes firsthand? Tourism Vancouver, the Vancouver Economic Commission and Vancouver Island North Film Commission have partnered to give away a trip for two to Vancouver and Vancouver Island so you can explore the #HomeOfTheApes firsthand.

Now is the time of rich foods and drinks, soft fabrics, and that feeling of warmth on your cheeks as you come in from the cold. The city is full of those experiences this season; if you already miss the foods of Dine Out Vancouver, try the Wine Festival or check out WestCoastFood for more ideas. If your softest fabrics are starting to feel drab, brighten your senses with the MOA’s colourful textile exhibit. Feeling the chill? There are performances going on every week to cozy into. Find more things to see and do from now until the end of March here.

The winter showers can’t keep this city inside – in fact, Vancouver’s Entertainment Season is when we illuminate the streets, the parks and the gardens with glittering decorations. This is also the launch season of many of Vancouver’s arts events such as the symphony, ballet, and theatre productions. The food gets rich, the cocktails and craft beer flow, and the festivities are diverse. Find out what’s going on from now until the New Year.

Inside Vancouver is a multi-author blog, written by Vancouverites about Vancouver. Our goal is to give an insider’s view of Vancouver, to provide information, stories and opinions from the locals’ perspective about this great city.